Category: Tourism

April 23, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Trans Asia hotel, part of the John Keells group, will be closed for repairs after being damaged in a Tamil Tiger air raid and be reopened under a new name.The company said in a stock exchange filing that the hotel in Colombo will be closed for three and […]

Apr 21, 2009 (LBO) – Tourist arrivals to Sri Lankan fell 10.5 percent to 34,065 for the month of March 2009, with key Western European and South Asian markets weakening, the tourism promotion office said. The number of tourists from the all-important western European market, the lifeblood of beach resorts, fell by 5.2 percent to […]

April 01, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Aitken Spence group said it has opened its latest Maldivian luxury resort called Adaaran ˜Prestige’ Vadoo. The resort, 15 minutes by speed boat from Male’ International Airport, has 50 villas including six Japanese concept rooms on the ocean, a company statement said. The company said each villa comes […]

Mar 31, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka and Nepal are discussing joint tourism packages that combine the attractions of Himalayan hikes with Indian Ocean beaches, the island’s international trade minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris said.Collective action by south Asian countries such as broadening trade in services like tourism could help them better cope with the effects […]

March 19, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lankan hotels stand to make financial gains by adopting cleaner production methods if done in a systematic manner, the head of the hotel trade body has said. Srilal Miththapala, president of the Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka, said many hotels have embarked on some form of energy conservation […]

KARACHI, March 12, 2009 (AFP) – Fida Hussain, 52, was once a frequent visitor to Pakistan’s scenic northwest, driving north into the mountains every time he flew over from the United States.But not any more. “I won’t go to Swat or any other place in the area as the Taliban rule there now and no […]

Mar 12, 2009 (LBO) – Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka fell 15.7 percent in February to 34,169 with the first two months of 2009 showing a 25.5 percent fall, and visitors from India halving, the country’s tourism promotion office said. East Asian arrivals dropped 28.4 percent to 3,153. Japan dropped 8.3 percent to 867 and […]

Feb 16, 2009 (LBO) – Foreign visitors to Sri Lanka plunged 32.4 percent in January 2009 to 38,468 compared with the same month last year, the island’s tourist promotion office said, with a global economic crisis depressing leisure travel.Arrivals from Western Europe, a key generating market that is crucial to keep coastal resorts in jam, […]

Feb 12, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tourist hotel industry body has suggested a fresh campaign to promote the island as a destination for visitors now that the ethnic war that deterred tourists is ending. “Sri Lanka tourism is beginning to be cautiously optimistic, with the inevitable end to the long and protracted war situation,” […]

Feb 12, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Aitken Spence Hotels said group net profit for the December 2008 quarter shot up almost 200 percent to 358 million rupees. Revenue for the nine months to December 31, 2008 rose eight percent to 4,505 million rupees The company said six months of the period under review relates […]

Feb 11, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s long-suffering hotel industry faces better prospects as the ethnic war that has kept visitors at bay is almost at an end, while depressed valuations and investment needs may trigger take-overs, an equities researcher has said. Srimal Liyanage of Lanka Securities said he believes the hotels listed on the […]

Feb 11, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s national airline has teamed up with the tourism authorities and trade to lure visitors from what is seen as a lucrative market in Eastern Europe.Sri Lankan Airlines said in a statement a series of carefully targeted campaigns were done recently in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic targeting […]